An Associated Press article in March 2005, reported at a meeting hosted by the Global Police Agency, Interpol sounded an urgent warning that bioterrorism is the world's greatest security threat and police are ill-equipped to handle an attack. In his opening remarks, Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble stated “There is no criminal threat with greater potential danger to all countries, regions and people in the world than the threat of bioterrorism.” In the United States, domestic bioterrorism attacks in the fall of 2001 demonstrated a costly vulnerability of society. The most significant release of anthrax spores in 2001 (in terms of number of spores released) was in the office suite of the U.S. Senate Majority Leader on the fifth floor of the Hart Senate Office Building. This event resulted in the closure of the entire building from Oct. 17, 2001 until Jan. 22, 2002. Three separate applications of chlorine dioxide gas were attempted to decontaminate the office suite and the HVAC system in the southeast quadrant of the building. The rest of the building was disinfected with chlorinated liquids and antimicrobial foam.
The Trenton, N.J. Postal Center which handled the contaminated letters was closed for three and a half years, finally reopening in March 2005. In a far less substantial release at NBC News in New York, one-half of a floor had to be evacuated for one month, and all the carpet from that area was ripped out and disposed of. Such response, while necessary for safety, caused a great deal of disruption for the people involved and cost millions of dollars. The scope of bioterrorism attacks, affecting both private sector and government facilities, indicates a vulnerability that is widespread.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a rapid and non-destructive decontamination and sterilization technique for biological hazards. The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.